A/N: Here's the next chapter; please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Chapter 2: Training

An 8-year-old Naruto could be seen panting heavily as he leaned against a tree with a tanto held limply in his calloused right hand. The surrounding trees were littered with numerous cuts of various length and depth, some of which having been cut clean through, showing someone had been relentlessly assaulting them with a blade.

"Did I say you could stop?" a deep voice called out making the young blond groan as he stumbled back to his feet.

"You're a sadistic bastard," Naruto responded as he glared at his red-haired sensei who was sitting by the fire casually sipping from his tea cup.

"Enough whining, get back to practicing your kata; unless you'd rather have another spar," Shinta said ominously as he reached for his katana. Naruto's eyes flew wide in fear as he immediately went back performing the kata that had been repeatedly drilled into his head by the slave-driving demon of a sensei.

Over the last three years, Shinta had run Naruto into the ground with his training and was pleasantly surprised by the results the boy had shown. About six months into Naruto's training, which had been mostly physical conditioning up to that point, Shinta had taught him the "shadow clone jutsu". Once Naruto was set to start the academy, the blond was instructed to send a shadow clone in his stead on days that there was not taijutsu practice while the original and several other clones resumed their training.

While he had been taught some chakra control exercises, taijutsu and some low-level ninjutsu, the majority of Naruto's training was put into kenjutsu and fuinjutsu which the boy had taken to like a fish to water. The boy was far from being a master, especially by Uzumaki standards, his progression for his age was nothing short of amazing.

"That's enough for now, Naruto," Shinta said as he stood up. Naruto felt like he was going to collapse as his arms hung limply at his side. "Give me twenty laps around the clearing and do your cool-down exercises then we'll break for lunch; I'm gonna go catch us some fish."

"Okay, oji," Naruto answered as he sheathed his tanto and began jogging around the clearing at a brisk pace. Shinta nodded in approval as he made his way out of the clearing toward a small stream that was nearby.

"You can come out now," the redhead called out once he was far enough away from the camp. There was no response for several seconds before a silver-haired man whose face was concealed by a dog-like mask appeared about ten feet in front of Shinta.

"I'm impressed; not many people are able to detect me."

"Uzumakis are some of the best sensors around; or at least we were."

"Fair point," the dog-masked man nodded in agreement.

"What do you want?" Shinta demanded with narrowed eyes as he placed his hand on the hilt of his katana.

"Woah, calm down; I don't mean any harm," the man answered with his hands raised in surrender.

"I know you've been keeping an eye on the kid for months now, so I'll ask one more time; what do you want?" The silver-haired man sighed in response as he removed his dog mask to reveal the cloth facemask beneath with his headband concealing his left eye.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake," the now-named Kakashi introduced himself with a nod of his head. "Naruto's father was my jounin sensei and was like a father to me before his passing. I look at Naruto as a little brother so I try to keep an eye on him when I'm not on a mission."

"Have you ever even met your so called 'little brother'?" Shinta asked with a stoic expression.

"No…" Kakashi answered with a downcast expression.

"What a great brother," the redhead answered sarcastically as he walked past the silver-haired man to the nearby stream. Kakashi continued to stare at the ground with a thoughtful gaze as Shinta threw the occasional senbon when a fish would jump pinning them to various trees. Once he had caught a decent amount, he collected the fish and started making his way back toward the clearing. Turning his head once he reached the tree-line, he addressed Kakashi who was still standing in the same spot with a thoughtful expression.

"You coming?" The sudden question seemed to rouse the man from his thoughts as he looked up to see the redhead seemingly waiting for him. Deciding that he had put meeting the son of his sensei off for far too long, he followed after the red-haired man. The two of them walked in silence all the way to the camp where they found Naruto finishing up his cool down exercises.

"Welcome back, oji; who's this?" Naruto asked once he noticed Kakashi.

"Hello, Naruto-kun. My name is Kakashi Hatake; it's nice to meet you."

"Aren't you that dog masked guy who follows me around sometimes?" Naruto asked earning a smirk from Shinta while Kakashi's visible eye widened in surprise. Kakashi cleared his throat once he got over his initial surprise.

"I guess I shouldn't really be surprised that you noticed me, but you're right; I'm a member of the ANBU."

"What's ANBU?" Naruto asked with a frown having never heard of the organization.

"The ANsatsu BUtai black ops. They're the people who handle the more difficult and shady missions of the village; and they're supposed to keep their true identities secret," Shinta explained with narrowed eyes earning an indifferent shrug and "meh" from Kakashi in response.

"So the ANBU are the strongest people in the village?"

"Not necessarily; though it is true that many of the village's strongest shinobi have at one point or another been involved with ANBU," Kakashi answered causing Naruto to look at him with a star-struck expression.

"That's so cool! I wanna become the strongest ANBU ever!" Naruto yelled excitedly.

"Are you sure, Naruto?" Shinta asked with a frown. "If you join ANBU you'll be doing mostly infiltration, torture, interrogation and assassination missions; they're known as the 'dark side' of shinobi for a reason."

"If that's what it takes then so be it," Naruto answered with a determined expression. Shinta eyed him carefully for several seconds before sighing.

"Very well; if that's your decision, I won't stop you."

"Why don't you go get us some water to boil for the tea, Naruto-kun," Kakashi suggested with his signature eye smile earning a nod from Naruto before he grabbed the kettle and ran off to fill it.

"Are you sure it was wise to tell him about ANBU?" Shinta asked once Naruto was out of earshot. Kakashi adopted a serious expression as he crossed his arms and leaned against a tree.

"We've been keeping an eye on him as a potential recruit since he joined the academy; my keeping tabs on him has been for more than just the fact he's sensei's son."

"This doesn't have anything to do with him being a jinchuuriki does it?" Shinta asked with a glare.

"Honestly, the commander doesn't care about that; otherwise he would've tried to recruit Kushina," Kakashi waved him off. "The main things we look for in recruits are personality and potential; beneath his façade, Naruto is an ideal candidate. And as much as I hate to admit it, him being an orphan is also a factor."

Shinta wore a thoughtful frown as he prepped the fish he had caught before skewering them on sticks and placing them around the fire he had made. "Very well; if this is something he still wishes to do when he comes of age, I won't stand in his way."

"Don't worry; I'll keep an eye on him until I believe he can handle himself."

"You damn well better," Shinta glared as he tightened his grip on his katana. "We'll talk about this later."

"Here's the water," Naruto said as he reentered the clearing with the kettle. Shinta nodded as he took the kettle and placed it over the fire. Once the fish and tea were prepared, the trio gathered around the fire for their light lunch. Once Naruto had finished, Shinta ordered him to practice his calligraphy. He continued his calligraphy for the next two hours while Shinta filled Kakashi in on what he had taught Naruto to this point. Kakashi interjected every now and then, but for the most part listened to the redhead's story.

"That's enough, Naruto; make fifty clones to practice your fuinjutsu and chakra control while you get back to your katas."

"Yes, sensei," Naruto nodded before doing as he was instructed.


[3 Years Later]

A now 11-year-old Naruto could be seen standing before a freshly dug grave as rain continued to shower him as if the heavens were weeping with him. The grave was marked by a crudely made cross consisting of two large branches tied together and surrounded by several large rocks. Buried beneath the dirt was the closest thing Naruto had ever had to a father; Shinta Uzumaki.

Over the last three years, Naruto had undergone more intensive training which was further compounded by the addition of Kakashi joining in whenever he wasn't on a mission. Shortly after their initial meeting, Kakashi had given the young blond a piece of chakra paper to test his elemental affinity. To his surprise, the paper split in half showing he had a wind affinity which was quite rare in the land of fire. Another surprise was when it was revealed he also had a fire affinity; while having two affinities wasn't that uncommon, it was the strength of his affinity that was surprising as the two halves of the chakra paper burst into flames.

From that point, Shinta let Kakashi take over his ninjutsu training while he focused on Naruto's fuinjutsu and kenjutsu. Things had been going quite well until about six months ago when Shinta developed a cough. At first, they wrote it off as a normal cough; but when he started coughing up blood, it became apparent that it was not quite that simple. After Kakashi took Shinta to the hospital for an examination, it was determined that he had tuberculosis which, unfortunately, was beyond their ability to treat. They both decided it was for the best not to tell Naruto the truth and played it off as just a chronic cough.

Shinta and Kakashi had continued to train Naruto as normal for the next six months leading up to the red-haired Uzumaki's death. Things had gone well in the boy's training with him being none the wiser until about a week before Shinta's death. At that point, Kakashi had decided to take Naruto out of the village under the guise of a "mission". By the time they had returned…Shinta was dead. Kakashi decided he would give the boy time to grieve and left to report to the hokage.


[2 Hours Later]

Kakashi returned to the clearing to find Naruto standing before the grave that he had apparently made with the rain masking the tears flowing freely from his eyes.

"You knew didn't you?" Naruto asked to seemingly no one until Kakashi appeared in a shunshin.

"Yes…" he answered somberly making Naruto grit his teeth.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Shinta and I both thought it would be better if you didn't know; he didn't want to ruin what little time you had left together." Naruto understood the decision not to tell him, but he still didn't like that he was lied to by the people closest to him. Naruto spent several minutes staring at the grave in silence with Kakashi standing dutifully beside him paying his own respects.

"Kakashi-nii…" Naruto finally spoke as he turned to the silver-haired man. "I want to spend my last year of the academy training by myself." Whatever Kakashi had been expecting, that certainly wasn't it.

"If that's what you want," Kakashi shrugged before reaching into his pouch and pulling out a scroll that he tossed to Naruto who caught it with a questioning look.

"What's this?"

"Think of it as an early birthday present from Shinta," the cycloptic jounin told him making Naruto look over the scroll in reverence. "See ya around, Naruto; don't slack off." Kakashi said with a lazy wave as he walked away. Naruto returned the wave as he watched his surrogate brother leave. Once he was out of sight, Naruto moved into the little shack he had spent much of his time in over the last five years and opened the scroll which turned out to be a letter with two storage seals at the bottom. Ignoring the storage seals for now, Naruto began reading the letter.


Dear Naruto,

First off, I want to say I'm sorry for lying to you about my illness; I didn't want to distract you from your training or fret about something that was inevitable. I understand if you are unable to forgive me, but don't hold it against that lazy bastard Kakashi; it was my idea to hide it from you.

Inside of the seals at the bottom of this letter are my final gifts to you. One contains the last of the books I have on fuinjutsu as well as all of my personal notes on fuinjutsu and kenjutsu. The other scroll contains one of the artifacts of our clan that I managed to recover from Uzushiogakure; it's called the "Dragon Sword". I'll have to leave discovering its capabilities to you; I never personally wielded it.

Remember everything I taught you about our clan. Family comes first; even before your loyalty to the village. Find someone precious to you and give everything you have to protect them; you need to do your best to restore our clan after all.

Take care of yourself, brat; I'm proud of you.

-Shinta Uzumaki


Water droplets could be seen scattered across the letter as tears continued to drip down Naruto's face. Naruto was more determined now than ever to do his best to help restore the Uzumaki clan. He would take a break from training for a few days to mourn, but after that he would redouble his efforts to master his family's teachings and become a legend throughout the shinobi world.

After that day, Kakashi would show up on occasion to check on him and have the occasional spar, but mostly left the young blond to his own devices.


[Present Day]

Team 7 could currently be seen making their way to the hokage's office having just completed their first D-rank mission.

"How is pulling weeds considered a mission?" Sasuke asked with his displeasure clearly visible on his face.

"Seriously; you could at least let me use shadow clones to help out," Naruto voiced his agreement with his raven-haired teammate.

"If I let you use clones it would defeat the purpose of these missions," Kakashi explained with his ever-present orange book in his hand.

"And what purpose would that be; driving us crazy with cheap manual labor for lazy civilians?" Naruto deadpanned earning nods of agreement from his teammates.

"No, it's to help build teamwork."

"And how exactly does pulling weeds 'help build teamwork'?"

"…"

"…"

"…I don't know?" Kakashi answered with a nervous sweat.

"Thank you for proving my point," Naruto answered dryly.

"Are there any requirements for us to take C-rank missions?" Sasuke asked.

"Technically no," Kakashi answered with a thoughtful frown. "All you really need is a recommendation from your jounin sensei stating that you're ready."

"So if you told the hokage you thought we were ready for a C-rank mission, we wouldn't have to do anymore glorified chores disguised as missions?" Naruto asked not-so-subtly hinting at what he wanted.

"Yes?"

"Let's get going then; I'm not wasting any more time on these chores," Sasuke cut in voicing his own desire to get into C-rank missions.

"I think you two are getting ahead of yourselves; I never said I thought you were ready or that I would request a C-rank mission."

"So are you saying you don't think we could handle a C-rank mission?" Naruto asked with narrowed eyes.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"I'll talk to Hokage-sama."


A/N: To those who didn't know who Shinta was, especially those of you who are fans of Rurouni Kenshin, I highly recommend you watch "Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal". To this day, it is still one of my favorite anime movies of all time. It details the early years of Kenshin when he was known as Hitokiri Battousai during the Meiji Revolution and the story of how he obtained his famous cross-shaped scar.

Ages:

Naruto-12

Tenten-13

Yugao-21

As always, thanks for reading.